Water resources

Annual Water Resources Review

All water companies are required to produce an Annual Review of the Water Resources Management Plan to ensure the plan remains fit for purpose. In this Annual Review we update on our water resource activities for 2015/16, as measured against our 2015 Water Resources Management Plan. We have included a forward look at water resources activities in the coming years that will help us to deliver our current plan. We also update on the development of our future 2019 Water Resources Management Plan and our draft Drought Plan 2016.
Our Annual Water Resources Review for 2015/16 is available here:

Water resources management plan

A Water Resources Management Plan shows out a secure and sustainable set of options to continue supplying customers for the years ahead. Within a Water Resource Management Plan we consider ways to reduce leakage and encourage greater water efficiency so that overall demand can be reduced even when the regional population is increasing. We take account of where existing abstractions must reduce, or cease, to help protect the environment. We consider many different options for sourcing new supplies of water both within and from beyond our region.

Our current water resources management plan, published in March 2015, covers our approach to managing water for the years 2015-2040, and is available here:

We have now begun the process of developing our next water resources management plan, to cover the period 2020 – 2045 (and beyond). We are committed to engaging will all those stakeholders who are affected by our management of water resources and have just launched our pre-consultation. Details are available here:

Drought plan

A Drought Plan sets out the actions a water company will consider implementing during drought conditions to safeguard essential water supplies to customers and minimise environmental impact. Droughts are natural events caused by a serious lack of rain over several months. Around once every twenty years there will be a drought serious enough to need water use restrictions on customers in the North West.

We are currently updating our Drought Plan due to less water being available for abstraction from Crummock Water in West Cumbria. We have just completed a six week public consultation period (3 October to 14 November 2016) on a new draft drought plan. We will publish a Statement of Response, explaining the considerations we have given to all the representations we received, by the 16 January 2017.

Current reservoir levels

Could you help us protect our cuppas and flushes for the future?

For our next plan, which is due to be finalised in 2019, we want to make sure we’ve looked at all our options to deliver the best value service to our customers. We want to see how we can reduce the demand for water in the first place so that we can all be water efficient, but also to find new ways to produce extra water if needed to ensure we keep the taps flowing so that there is enough water for everyone.

If this is something you or your business could help with, we’d like to hear from you.